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At dawn on the morning of the 9th, the order for attack was given. Immediately, one hundred cannon, rocket batteries and mortars opened fire on the massed ranks of the enemy. Many unleashed several payloads with a single discharge, and the effect was devastating. The artillery had been positioned in formidable redoubts, being unable to fire on the move, and it was therefore of paramount impor- tance to defend them at all costs.Knight Commander Holstein had the honour of leading the first charge upon the ghouls on the right flank. As expected, the creatures showed no fear in the face of his advance, refusing to retreat a single step. Their ranks rapidly crumbled once the full impact of the charge was felt, yet noble Holstein soon found himself bogged down and cut off once their bodies began to reanimate.
Meanwhile, Prince Ilya Vadimovich was advancing on the left, and with a vigorous assault managed to capture the fortified village of Crauladino. But when they attempted to push beyond this point, his troops were overcome with dread at the sight of a vast dragon, blotting out the sun, accompanied by a ghostly horde of horrors, wraiths, phantoms and other supernatural creatures that passed through the land – and their weaponry – as if it were not there. Immediately, the Emperor commanded the engagement of Marshall Reinhard and his griffon knights, who valiantly assaulted the undead drag- on in the skies, managing to bring it down at great cost. However, the deadly effects of its necrotising breath and the accompanying spectres had already driven the Volskayan lines into panicked retreat.
In the centre, the Emperor had been unwilling to sacrifice the higher ground, allowing the shambling troops of the enemy, lacking the basic discipline required to march, to slowly approach and weather the effects of our guns. Yet even when battle was joined in earnest, they still numbered several times
our own soldiers. Our troops fought bravely, but by noon the toxins of the enemy, combined with a sudden surge of their reinforcements on the right, left our lines
in disarray.
The slaughter was at its thickest, as bodies were heaped in all directions. They were almost upon the artillery redoubts when the Emperor committed his Imperial Guard. Sworn to protect their liege until death, the stolid knights stood alone against the tide of undeath as the Emperor carved his way to- wards that unholy monster, the enemy commander. Guided by the divine blessings of Archmage Bloch, the Emperor cleaved through the enemy wards, finally reaching the vampire and dispatching him with a single
blow.
— Testimony of Baron Jung, Aide de Camp to Emperor Frederick at the battle of Crauladino, 924 A.S. It was the final and bloodiest engagement of the War of the Dead.